Anchoring unit for small boats



May 5, 1970 ..o. PERSINGER ANCHORING UNIT FOR SMALL BOATS 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Aug. 7, 1968 IN VENTOR.

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May 5, 1970 o. PERSINGER ANCHORING UNIT FOR SMALL BOATS 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Aug. 7, 1968 INVENTOR. 14mm: 0. 55/N6E ZW,

States Patent 3,509,847 ANCHORING UNIT FOR SMALL BOATS Laverne O. Persinger, Burbank, Calif., assignor of onehalf to M. L. Persinger, Glendale, Calif. Filed Aug. 7, 1968, Ser. No. 750,892 Int. 'Cl. B63!) 21/22 U.S. Cl. 114-210 5 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A small boat anchoring unit comprising a winch, a tube pivotally mounted on the boat, preferably on the deck, and an anchor having a shank intended to be pulled up into the tube. A pulley is secured within the upper part of the tube. The anchor has a plurality of flukes.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention is within the field of systems for anchoring small boats.

The prior art relating to boat anchoring units generally does not provide the small boat owner with a simple, easily mounted and relatively cheap automatic anchoring unit.

Prior automatic anchoring units have often incorporated hawseholes in the hull of the boat, or projecting tubes in combination with apparatus for clearing the side of the boat when the anchor is weighed. Some anchoring units have hawseholes which incorporate complex guides and levers to effectively guide the anchor into the hawsehole. Others provide complex mechanical equipment on deck to eflFectively weigh and store the anchor. Provision is also made for elaborate hauling winches for use with the foregoing equipment which have complicated controls to facilitate weighing the anchor. Furthermore, it is often necessary to provide fluke folding devices or guides to protect the side of the boat against damage by the flukes.

Such anchoring units have generally not been readily adaptable to a small boat, and have incorporated cumbersome apparatus not desirable or usable on a small boat. The present invention substantially reduces the complexity of such anchoring units and eliminates their deficiencies.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The anchoring unit of this invention has an improved anchor with a shank which is drawn into a pivoted tube by means of a cable extending from the shank, through the tube, to a Winch.

The tube is pivotally mounted, preferably on the deck of a boat, by a bracket having a stop to limit downward pivotal movement and thereby prevent the anchor from hitting or scraping the sides of the boat. The tube and the bracket to which it is pivotally connected provide a simplified anchor weighing, storage and dropping unit. The invention eliminates the use of elaborate hawseholes, guiding machinery, and complex deck storage apparatus, and is easily installed without substantial alteration of an existing boat.

The small boat owner and commercial fisherman of limited means are now provided with an automatic anchoring device within their economic means giving greater pleasure and productivity to each of them respectively.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a boat, anchored by one unit of the present invention, mounted in the stern, and a second unit, mounted in the bow, weighed and stored;

FIG. 2 is a partial cross-sectional view of the anchoring unit with the anchor weighed and the unit ready to be 3,509,847 Patented May 5, 1970 DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The anchoring unit 10 of the present invention is shown in FIG. 1, mounted on the deck of a boat 12 in the bow and the stern. The stern unit is shown anchoring the boat, and the bow unit is shown weighed and stored.

The anchoring unit 10 generally comprises an anchor 14 attached to a cable 16. The unit has a pivotal tube 18 into which the anchor is drawn, and a tube mounting device 20 for weighing and storing the anchor on the deck of the boat 12.

The unit is provided with a winding means to which the cable 16 is attached, such as winch or Windlass which is not shown because of its below deck installation. The winding means preferably is power operated, with a brake or lock, so that the anchor 14 may be weighed and stored automatically.

When the winding means is operated to release or pay out the cable 16, the anchoring unit 10 pivots to drop the anchor 14 without scraping the side of the boat.

The anchor 14 has a shank 22 with a tapered upper end 24 which facilitates drawing the anchor into the tube 18. The cable 16 is swaged or otherwise aflixed to the tapered end 24 of the shank 22, as by a transverse pin 26. Preferably, the anchor includes a disk-shaped base member 28 axially affixed to the lower end of the shank 22 to provide suflicient weight for gravitationally paying out the cable 16 when the anchor 14 is dropped. The base member 28 preferably has a plurality of radial upwardly extending arcuate flukes 30 that may be removably held within a plurality of holes 32 in the base member, as by set screws 34. The arcuate flukes 30' terminate in sharpened end regions 36 for engaging the bottom to which the anchor grabs.

The outer or lower end of tube 18 has a flared or belled end 38 which facilitates pulling the tapered end 24 of anchor shank 22 into the tube. At the upper end, a sheave 40 is rotatably afiixed at the upper or inner end of the tube 18 to prevent binding of the cable 16 as it enters the tube from the winch. The sheave 40 provides free running movement of the cable 16 through the tube 18 at all times.

The sheave 40 as shown in FIG. 3 is mounted on a pin 42 supported by an outer substantially elliptical casing 44 supported in turn by the walls of the tube 18. An inner bearing race 46 surrounds the pin 42, and a plurality of balls 48 are placed in the race in contact with an outer race 50. The outer race 50 is in turn affixed to the pulley or cable ring 52 of the sheave 40. Thus, when the cable enters the tube 18 it travels on the pulley 52 of the rotating sheave surrounded in part by the substantially elliptical casing 44, thus providing free movement of the cable in and out of the tube. It will be appreciated that since the sheave 40 is mounted in the upper end of the tube 18, it will move with the tube as the latter pivots, as hereinafter described.

The tube mounting assembly 20 comprises an ear 54, affixed to the tube 18, and pivotally connected to a deck mounting bracket 56 incorporating two upright members 57 attached to a base plate 58. The ear 54 and the upright members 57 of the mounting bracket 56 have aligned holes for the receipt of a shaft or pin 60. When the shaft 60 is inserted through the aligned holes, the tube 18 affixed to the ear 54 may be pivotally moved about the axis of the shaft. The base plate 58 is affixed to the deck of the boat 12 preferably by screws 62, and may be aflixed in any other suitable manner.

The upright members 57 of the mounting bracket 56 may have a stop 64 located between their outer ends and adjustable, so that when the ear 54 holding the tube 18'is pivoted downwardly, the tube and anchor will be stopped from movement beyond the position shown in full lines in FIG. 2. Thus, the stop 64 acts to prevent the anchor 14 from swinging inwardly against the side of the boat 12.

A pulley 68 is provided in the deck of the boat to guide the cable 16 from the sheave 40 to the winch or Windlass below deck. The winch is preferably motor powered, and with an automatic brake or look so that the cable 16 will be held against winding or unwinding when the motor is not being operated. As a result, the anchor 14 may be weighed and stored automatically by merely turning on the winch motor, and turning it off once the unit has been pivoted back into its stored position on deck. It is to "be understood, of course, that the winch may be hand operated if desired, or may be eliminated and the cable pulled by hand.

The automatic weighing and storing of the anchor is provided by the winch winding the cable 16 until the shank 22 of the anchor is drawn into the tube 18 and the base 28 contacts the belled end 38 of the tube. At this time, the anchor 14 is held against further movement with respect to the tube 18, and further winding of the cable 18 on the winch pivots the depending tube 18 and anchor 14 upwardly and backwardly into the cantilevered storage position shown in FIG. 4.

The anchor 14 in the stored position as seen in the bow of the boat 12 of FIG. 1 is dropped by releasing the winch holding the cable 16. The gravitational force on the unit will cause it to pivot downwardly from its cantilevered storage position to a lowered position where the ear 54 with the tube 18 and anchor 14 is stopped from further downward pivotal movement by the stop 64. The weight of the anchor 14 will then pull the shank 22 out of the tube 18 and pay out the cable 16 until the anchor hits and grabs the bottom. The operator then stops the winch, thus stopping the cable 16 from being further paid out, and the anchor unit 10 and attached cable are thus held in the extended anchoring position as shown in the stern of the boat 12 of FIG. 1.

While a preferred form of the invention has been shown, it is to be understood that the invention is not to be restricted to the particular form or arrangement of parts herein shown and described, as it is apparent that modi fications and variations therein may be effected without substantially departing from the spirit and scope of the novel concepts of this invention as set forth by the fol lowing claims.

I claim:

1. An anchor unit for boats which includes:

an anchor having an elongated shank and a plurality 4 of flukes extending from the lower end thereof, the upper end of said shank being tapered to a smaller size;

an elongated tube flared at its lower end adapted to receive said shank, said tube having a length greater than the length of said shank and a laterally projecting ear intermediate its ends;

' a bracket adapted to be mounted on a boat deck adjacent the edge thereof;

shaft means pivotally connecting said ear to said bracket, whereby said tube may be pivoted from a generally vertical position to a substantially horizontal, stowed position;

stop means limiting the downward pivoting of said ear to prevent the lower end of said tube and anchor I carried therein from hitting the side of said boat;

a cable attached to the upper end of said shank, extending upwardly through said tube, and adapted to be selectively pulled up or released to move downwardly; and r a sheave mounted in the upper end of said tube to guide said cable, whereby pulling said cable upwardlymoves said anchor upwardly until said shank is within said tube, whereupon further pulling of said cable pivots said tube from a generally vertical position to a generally horizontal, stowed position, and releasing of said cable permits the pivoting of said tube to its generally vertical position, against said stop means, and further release of said cable drops said anchor, the length of said tube and shank being sufiicient to insure that said flukes will not swing into engagement with said boat at any time.

2. An anchor unit as in claim 1 wherein said tube is pinched adjacent the top thereof so as to form an elliptical portion adjacent said sheave, said sheave being rotatab ly secured to opposed side walls of said elliptical portion.

3. An anchor unit as in claim 2 wherein said sheave is positioned such that a portion thereof extends outwardly above the top of said tube.

4. An anchor unit as in claim 3 wherein said stop means is carried by said bracket and engages said car upon downward pivoting thereof, such that said tube is prevented from assuming a completely vertical position to thereby prevent said flukes from hitting the side of said boat.

5. An anchor unit as in claim 2 wherein said sheave is pivotally secured to opposed side walls of said elliptical portion by a rigid pin extending therebetween, said sheave comprising an outer pulley rotatably mounted on said pin through an inner ball bearing assembly such that said pulley is freely rotatable relative to said pin.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS TRYGVE M. BLIX, Primary Examiner 

